I think Facebook’s new privacy features might be a little too late

Facebook is still in crisis mode, looking to fix its huge Cambridge Analytica privacy problem before it can get on to bigger things. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook will improve user privacy going forward, and that it’ll conduct an internal audit to see exactly how many other Facebook apps have abused user privacy like Cambridge Analytica did.

On Wednesday the company announced that “it’s time to make our privacy tools easier to find.” Yes, that’s the actual title of the blog post, which seems to imply that those privacy tools were never easy to find. And that the company knew for a while, they were not easy to find, and now it’s finally fixing it.

We’ve redesigned our entire settings menu on mobile devices from top to bottom to make things easier to find. Instead of having settings spread across nearly 20 different screens, they’re now accessible from a single place. We’ve also cleaned up outdated settings so it’s clear what information can and can’t be shared with apps.

Facebook is also introducing a new Privacy Shortcuts menu where users will be able to control their data and receive more information about it.

The menu allows users to strengthen the security of their accounts, control the flow of personal information, manage who sees their posts and profile info, and manage their ads experience.

Access Your Information is a new feature that lets users access and manage their information (posts, reactions, comments, searches) and delete anything they don’t want to be available on Facebook. That data can also be easily downloaded, Facebook said.

Finally, Facebook says it’ll update its terms of service to better inform you on how it collects and uses your data. “These updates are about transparency – not about gaining new rights to collect, use, or share data.”